I love ranged combat, and I love navies, so In Civ V England is going to be my favorite Civ.

Well, I also love Wonders too, who doesnt? But Ramesses seems a bit lame to me.

In Civ IV, I used to mainly play as Hannibal with the Great Lighthouse and rapid coastal rexing. In Age of Empires II, I used to love playing as the British and using those powerful Longbowmen. England in Civ V combines both of these playstyles into one Civ, its about time that a strategy game finally did this.

Firstly, the Great Lighthouse is YOUR wonder. It will help to vastly improve your navy even more, adding +1 movement and +1 sight for all naval units.

The Commerce social policy tree is the most important for England. The key bonuses are +25% gold in your capital, another +1 move and +1 sight for naval units, and +3 production for coastal cities.

Great Merchant Economy

(Adapting from my Civ IV tactic with Hannibal - This was just hax in Civ IV because each GM gave +1 food and +6 gold when settled in your capital. After you popped and settled a bunch of GMs, you would end up with a tonne of surplus food and capacity to run lots of Merchant specialists giving you a super food and gold city).

In Civ V however, great merchants will be vastly different. They can no longer be settled to provide that food and gold boost, and have three functions - construct a customs house on a tile for +4 gold, create a trade mission to a city state for a huge gold boost, or start a golden age. To synergise with commerce's +25% gold in the capital, you could try surrounding London with custom houses, and also add a market, bank, and stock exchange as soon as they become available. Alternatively, you can send them off into city states to conduct trade missions and earn large lump sums of gold.

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How do you get Great Merchants?

Build a Market, Bank and Stock Exchange in London, run as many Merchant Specialists as you can.

The Great Lighthouse starts you off towards your Great Merchant economy by giving you +1 GM point. Big Ben reduces hurry costs in cities by 25%, and produces +2 GM points. The Pentagon reduces upgrade costs by 50% and provides another +2 GM points. These are your three crucial wonders to guarantee naval superiority and to generate lots of Great Merchant points for your economy (cheaper rush buys and upgrades for your Navy and infrastructure!!!). However, Big Ben and Pentagon are later game wonders, so you will want to consider building other wonders to boost GM points in London:

Colossus: Another ancient era wonder that gives +1 GM point, and +1 gold per water tile. While this doesnt seem as powerful as other wonders, it helps lots when implemented into a GM economy. The extra gold from water tiles along with a lighthouse helps towards paying maintenence costs early on, and the extra GM point will add towards your GM farm.

Notre Dame: +5 happiness and +1 GM point. Happiness is the backbone of your economy in Civ V. Adding Notre Dame to your GM farm in London will not only provide you with more GM points, but also increase happiness across your empire. Prioritize this wonder very highly.

You have two significant advantages as England. Obviously, your navy is just completely Imba, especially with the Great Lighthouse (if you dont get the great lighthouse built as England, /quit and start again). Build ships, make sure to get the navigation bonus, and use them as your main defence and attack force throughout the game. Keep some stationed on the edges of your borders, and explore with others.

But what do you do if you get attacked on land? Easy answer - LONGBOWMEN!!! Prioritize getting to whichever tech unlocks these and spam them. They are the most powerful ranged units in the game with 12 ranged strength and 3 range. Plus you can upgrade them to get an extra attack per turn, and an extra point of range allowing them to shoot up to 4 hexes away. No one else will have this much ranged strategy until artillery, so use them well.

How do you to make Longbowmen better? Be sure to take social policies that boost combat and defense within your borders. Have some Pikemen on the edges of your borders at strategic choke points with longbows behind them. Build the Great Wall in a city other than London (probably in City 2). This will slow enemy units down by 1 movement point in your territory. Later on add Himeji Castle (+25% combat in your borders) and Kremlin (+50% city defence) to this city too to vastly boost your defence and combat within your borders. All your land strategies should remain fully within your own borders where you are strong. Never march units outside your borders as England, your UA will handle that much better (more on this further down).

Turtle with your longbows. Hide behind your pikemen and shoot the enemy units. Every turn as they advance, do not attack them first, move your units back one tile and then fire. Most enemy units will only be able to move 1 tile per turn in your borders. If they get mounted units in, thats what your pikemen are for. With the 1 UPT and hex grid, you should be able to shield your longbows well with pikemen.

How do you attack enemies and capture cities? NOT VIA LAND!!!. Your opponent will have coastal cities, or cities near enough to the coast, and you have a superfast navy that can also bombard land tiles. Your navies movement bonus also applies to embarked units. While your enemies are busy attacking you by land and being thwarted by your great wall and longbows, you send a bunch of ships and amphibious units along the coast to their cities. Both your extra moves and sight over water will easily allow you to outmaneuver the pitiful enemy fleets, and you can strike them down easily if they are too close. Never march by land, your navy will be 3x faster (Embarked units have 2 base movement, +2 from Sun Never Sets, +1 from great lighthouse, and +1 from the commerce policy for 6 moves per turn!). Bombard and blockade away, and then land your embarked units and keep them supported with ranged attacks from your ships.

Turtle on land, death by sea. lots of gold from Great Merchants for rush buying and upgrades.

I guess the trick is not dying before the Medieval Era given all the hammers you are going to be putting into early Wonders.

You can get to their shores faster but you will still need to deal with their navy. Also, your target selection will be limited since most cities will be inland where your navy will not helping you. Also, no matter how fast your ships are they still have to stop and end their turn when they attack. Navies are great but they are situational in their usefulness. Compared to cIV at least, though, your target cannot just hide their ship inside their city where they cannot be attacked when overmatched.

If you are relying on turtling then your ability to get the range/logistics promotion is going to be severly hampered; plus your longbows only get 2XP per attack as opposed to 4/5 for your melee units.

To each their own but recommending that you quit and restart if you miss The Great Lighthouse isn't the best advice for a serious strategy guide.

To each their own but recommending that you quit and restart if you miss The Great Lighthouse isn't the best advice for a serious strategy guide.

Its England. The official strategy guide says 'Never let England build the Great Lighthouse'.

I would suppose the opposite is also true if you are playing as England, 'Never lose the Great Lighthouse'

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polobo

You can get to their shores faster but you will still need to deal with their navy.

You have 3 more movement and more sight then they do with the Great Lighthouse, thats what makes that wonder so important for England. Outmaneuvering enemy navies will be very easy, as will landing any embarked units if you need to avoid attacks (6 movement for those).

We dont know how it will work out yet until we get the game anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polobo

I guess the trick is not dying before the Medieval Era given all the hammers you are going to be putting into early Wonders.

Other than the Great Lighthouse, Big Ben and Pentagon, the other suggestions are completely optional, they can be skipped if you need to. Though I would assume it to be easy to manage seeing that in Civ 4, I could easily pull off Stonehenge, GLH and Oracle without any difficulty at all up to Monarch. Diplomacy will help a lot in keeping you alive too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polobo

You can get to their shores faster but you will still need to deal with their navy. Also, your target selection will be limited since most cities will be inland where your navy will not helping you.

Well, if most of their cities are inland, then they probably wont have a very good navy to match yours

Also, your target selection will be limited since most cities will be inland where your navy will not helping you.

Kinda depends on the map type and size. In a great deal of the preview screenies, videos, and what not, the "continental" landmasses seem to involve a great deal of water and many coastal cities. Naval "artillery" could actually work out pretty well, with the bonus movement allowing for rapid harassment/assistance.

Just because England get's a naval bonus doesn't mean you have to focus exclusively on their navy. In fact you could probably focus even less on it than usual, and get by with a smaller than normal navy.

The colossus is actually a very good wonder in my opinion, its cheap and you can build it early. If you have a lot of caostal cities, which is what this startegy is all about, then the amount of extra gold you generate through the rest of the game compared to the hammers you put in ... SIMPLY AWSOME

Other than that as England i would build The Great Lighthouse for sure. The rest of the wonders, pick and choose what you need. just dont build wonders for GM points. YOu can build the required buildings and generate GM's by running merchant specialists.

Just because England get's a naval bonus doesn't mean you have to focus exclusively on their navy. In fact you could probably focus even less on it than usual, and get by with a smaller than normal navy.

You could also play as Persia and never trigger a single Golden age, or play as Japan and never go to war or use a single Samurai, yet you wouldnt be using your civ to the best of its abilities.

England is a civ for people who want to use navy, if that doesnt appeal to you then you should play a civ that plays to your tactics.

The thing is that normal units move 2 spaces per turn on land. Englands embarked units can move up to 6 turns. Thats a huge advantage that you wouldnt want to miss out if you can use it well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shafi-is-back

. The rest of the wonders, pick and choose what you need. just dont build wonders for GM points. YOu can build the required buildings and generate GM's by running merchant specialists.

Of course you can build any wonders you like, but a GM farm is a very good tactic that gets you lots of gold to pay for aything you need.

I disagree with the "quit if no GLH" meta-strategy. You'll still have at least a +1 MP advantage over every civ, and a +2 MP advantage over most of them. The GLH has good synergy, but you don't need it and you'll never play well if you're dependent on it.

And, I'd say that Colossus is actually going to be much more important. To leverage the UT effectively, you need coastal cities, and from what we've seen so far, water tiles without Colossus will be effectively worthless. (Even with Colossus and Commerce bonuses, they still don't look great.)

Just because England get's a naval bonus doesn't mean you have to focus exclusively on their navy. In fact you could probably focus even less on it than usual, and get by with a smaller than normal navy.

True but generally its always (even in life or in the business world) about utilising your strengths, mitigating your weaknesses and of course exploiting oppurtunities that present themselves.

So whilst, you can play differently, conventional wisdom (referring to it in a general sense as in life) usually points towards playing to your strengths.

The colossus is actually a very good wonder in my opinion, its cheap and you can build it early. If you have a lot of caostal cities, which is what this startegy is all about, then the amount of extra gold you generate through the rest of the game compared to the hammers you put in ... SIMPLY AWSOME

Not especially. You have to build the wonder and build a lighthouse in every coastal city in order to get some tiles which are no better than Grassland TP and eventually worse (once some SPs kick in). It'll work well on Archipelago, where you don't have a choice about building on the coast, or in a strategy that delays building workers, but other than that you'll probably be better off building inland unless you need lots of naval unit production.

I disagree with the "quit if no GLH" meta-strategy. You'll still have at least a +1 MP advantage over every civ, and a +2 MP advantage over most of them. The GLH has good synergy, but you don't need it and you'll never play well if you're dependent on it.

It also gives an extra sight as well, which I would rather have as England that let another Civ take it

You can keep on playing if you like, but I would quit and start again if I didnt get it with Englang.

And, I'd say that Colossus is actually going to be much more important. To leverage the UT effectively, you need coastal cities, and from what we've seen so far, water tiles without Colossus will be effectively worthless. (Even with Colossus and Commerce bonuses, they still don't look great.)

You are comparing tile yields to CIV IV. In civ V terms they look good enough. Prolly not as good as a trading post on a riverside grassland but even in CIV IV coastal tiles with the colossus couldnt match up to riverside cottages.

But i agree. I think if you are going coastal, Colosuss is more important in my book.

Not especially. You have to build the wonder and build a lighthouse in every coastal city in order to get some tiles which are no better than Grassland TP and eventually worse (once some SPs kick in). It'll work well on Archipelago, where you don't have a choice about building on the coast, or in a strategy that delays building workers, but other than that you'll probably be better off building inland unless you need lots of naval unit production.

And why wouldnt you be building coastal cities with lighthouses and naval production as England?

You want to play a Civ to utilize its UA and UUs / UB. England is Civ V's coastal Civ, like Hannibal and Willem were in Civ IV.

Not especially. You have to build the wonder and build a lighthouse in every coastal city in order to get some tiles which are no better than Grassland TP and eventually worse (once some SPs kick in). It'll work well on Archipelago, where you don't have a choice about building on the coast, or in a strategy that delays building workers, but other than that you'll probably be better off building inland unless you need lots of naval unit production.

I agree 100% that riverside trading posts are stronger.

However since the OP has decided on a coastal stratergy the colosuss becomes very powerful. What i'm saying is if you have lots of coastal cities, the colosuss gives you a lot of gold through the game for a very small hammer investment.

You could also play as Persia and never trigger a single Golden age, or play as Japan and never go to war or use a single Samurai, yet you wouldnt be using your civ to the best of its abilities.

England is a civ for people who want to use navy, if that doesnt appeal to you then you should play a civ that plays to your tactics.

The thing is that normal units move 2 spaces per turn on land. Englands embarked units can move up to 6 turns. Thats a huge advantage that you wouldnt want to miss out if you can use it well.

At least with persia it's a %increase, making each golden age a lot more valuable. With england it's just a fixed bonus. That's why I don't understand why you want the great lighthouse so much. You're ALREADY getting a super fast navy... getting 1 extra movement will probably not do much more for you. You'd be much better off getting, say, the great library for a more advanced navy, or the ironworks for more units.

Let's put it this way. Suppose England's bonus was +1 million to range and sight, and the great lighthouse did the same. Would you still find it necessary to build the great lighthouse? Of course not- You've already got more range and sight than you could ever effectively use. The larger your range, the less useful another bonus is.

Nothing wrong with using a navy, but you can't rely on that 100%, and at some point you're getting really diminishing returns by investing in your navy instead of something else.

At least with persia it's a %increase, making each golden age a lot more valuable. With england it's just a fixed bonus. That's why I don't understand why you want the great lighthouse so much. You're ALREADY getting a super fast navy... getting 1 extra movement will probably not do much more for you. You'd be much better off getting, say, the great library for a more advanced navy, or the ironworks for more units.

With the great lighthouse and navigation, you end up with +4 movement and +2 sight for naval units. Without it you only have +3 and +1. The larger that bonus is, the better your UA becomes. Also, you definately wouldnt want Songhai to get the GLH instead of you, or they would end up with 4 movement on their embarked units which can also defend themselves, as opposed to 5 on you.

This also applies to embarked units. You can read that in this thread:

Let's put it this way. Suppose England's bonus was +1 million to range and sight, and the great lighthouse did the same. Would you still find it necessary to build the great lighthouse? Of course not- You've already got more range and sight than you could ever effectively use. The larger your range, the less useful another bonus is.

Except its not 1 million. its +3 movement, and +1 sight max bonus without the GLH, and +4, +2 max bonus with. Also you deny another Civ from getting a navy comparable to yours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DalekDavros

I disagree with the "quit if no GLH" meta-strategy. You'll still have at least a +1 MP advantage over every civ, and a +2 MP advantage over most of them.

Please dont also ignore the view range bonus. Without the GLH, England will only get +1 naval view range from the commerce tree, whereas the person that does build it will have +2. GLH is 130 hammers, with that every naval unit gets the same as an extra mobility and visibility promotion for free.

Could you explain your idea about the Great Merchant Economy a bit more?

I'm failing to understand the great thing about all the GM points. A GM lets you build a Customs House for +4. It sounds just a like a glorified Trading Post, except you won't be able to get +2 from the Free Thought Social Policy. Granted, it does tie in nicely with the +25% bonus in the capital from the Commerce SP.

Most likely, a Trade Mission is a good return for the GM (I don't know exact numbers of course). BUT... there is an opportunity cost to a Great Merchant - it's not a Great Scientist! GP points work differently to Civ4 of course (different types accumulated independently) but one fact remains: Great People get progressively more expensive. So if a GM is born, it will make your next GS more expensive.

Why do I think a GS is worth more than a GM? The ability of a GS is to give you an entire tech (any tech you can currently research, your choice) for free! I'm pretty sure that synergises with any strategy.

Although, now I think about it, the GM sounds like an excellent tool for diplomatic victories: Trade mission to a city state for massive amounts of gold and some influence with them. Spend the gold on MORE influence with all the other city states. But still... compare that to a GS learning all of Globalization so that you can build the UN...